


Execute

by orphan_account



Series: before. [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 16:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8021503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Reyes, in response, shifts. It’s not that he hasn’t thought about it before. He knows these type of nights. These are the sort of nights he spends staring up at the ceiling counting the ways he thinks he’ll die.





	Execute

“How do you think we’ll die?” Jack asks them in the midst of the bulletfire.

Except, there is no them. Not yet.

( Though, Jack does eventually ask Ana and Reinhardt and Törbjorn the same question when they come together. That’s a few years away, so for the time being, there is only Reyes. )

Reyes, in response, shifts. It’s not that he hasn’t thought about it before. He knows these type of nights. These are the sort of nights he spends staring up at the ceiling counting the ways he thinks he’ll die.

Too quickly, he runs out of ways he’ll die the way he knows he deserves to. For all the horrors that plagues his imagination, there is only so much that Reyes knows of the lurking shadows and what they reveal to those who are easily baited.

He has thought about the mundane deaths he does not want ( is it morbid to think that he honestly never expected to live past twenty? ) to die as well. Growing older until his hair is at odds with his dark skin and his bones creak doesn’t appeal to him. Neither does falling or drowning or pushing off sleeping for so long he simply just closes his eyes to blink and never opens them again.

There are the ways he can't even conceive too.

_You’ll live for a very long time_ , his ama says and Reyes is a smart child so he holds his tongue and nods his head. _You will outlive us all._

He sighs.

It’s too dark here and whatever sliver of moonlight that makes it through the clouds is lost in the foxhole they’ve dug for themselves. Jack’s eyes are too blue. He can’t see what shade they are in this lighting, but he imagines that they’d glow. They won't shine a vivid electric blue, but rather something _dim_. Something muffled and covered up with a hand, blue light spilling through between the cracks of pressed fingers and semi-translucent skin.

Jack’s tired, Reyes thinks. There are deep groves beneath his eyes. Their features match, down to the very shade of purple-black.

( He thinks of this moment when he’s more Reyes than Reaper sometimes. When he’s drained of vitality and the growing emptiness within him has evolved to a voracious affliction. He remembers this night because of how the yellow fog choked their throats. He doesn’t remember it raining, but thinking back on it, rain would make it more tragic.

Re(aper)yes - he can’t tell anymore - decides he remembers rain and muses on how it slid down Jack’s nose. )

Another shift. Jack tenses beside him. They’re so close they can hear each other breathing and Reyes knows how shallow Jack’s lungfuls are. They’re very small and insufficient even with the chemical cocktail keeping them alive.

He hesitates, but he does press on.

“We’ll die,” Reyes answers because he knows what Jack is actually asking and he lifts up and arm to curl around Jack.

Jack buries his head in the crook of Reyes’ neck and he’s thankful he no longer has to stare at those eyes. Jack shivers, but Reyes is a solid wall of immovability.

Jack doesn’t sleep, but neither does Reyes.

* * *

Later, two becomes five.

Reyes is there when Jack asks Ana how she thinks they’ll die. Ana, and the rest of them, are too new. They haven't yet established a team dynamic and there are too many nuances between them than Reyes cares to explore. Ana shouldn’t understand, but Reyes is a quiet observer in this exchange so he says nothing.

Still, Ana doesn’t miss the way Jack’s eyes flicker to Reyes as he asks his question. She purses her lips in that polite way that tells Reyes she _wants_ them to know she understands. Reyes is glad he stays silent. She gives away more than he thinks she intends to.

“How do you think we’ll die?” Jack asks her, again. Reyes notices that Ana is staring too intently at him and Jack’s eyes keep flitting between them both. Ana is taking too long and Jack, clearly agitated, lays the insides of his wrists both flat on the table. His hands are curled and his jaw is tense.

( Idly, Reyes admires the clean-cut line of it. )

Ana breaks away, having apparently found what she was looking for, to look at Jack’s hands before answering, “You won’t die, Jack.”

A winning smile and that fancy tattoo underneath her eyes shifts with her skin as her eyes crinkle.

“I won’t let you.”

Jack nods, face the very opposite of relief despite the way Jack practiced and Reyes can’t help but feel sad for them both.

* * *

Reyes likes Reinhardt.

Reinhardt is easy to understand. The man isn’t dim or dull-witted, but there’s a refreshing authenticity in his simplicity that isn’t present in the rest of them.

Jack is bold enough to ask Reinhardt on his own, so Reyes tries to act surprised when Reinhardt corners him one morning to ask him if he knows.

( He’s careful to file away the fact that Reinhardt doesn’t elaborate on _what_ Reyes should know. He’s good at this. He's made a habit of collecting pieces of data about the people around him. It’s amazing what people will give up about themselves. )

Reyes shrugs, more focused on frowning at the coffee machine to really give a proper response. Reinhardt presses, voice carrying a note of delicacy because he’s very aware that Reyes is not Jack. While Jack is an endless maze with no explanation, Reyes is a field of tall, dark grass at night.

Ana knows enough to step lightly and to pull on the blades of grass if she needs to. Torbjörn complains, but he has been playing this game far longer than Reyes has and he knows how to make his way through harmlessly. Jack likes to stay in the field. _Reminds me of the farm_ , Jack says with that smile of his that makes sparks lance through Reyes' skin.

Reinhardt, then, burns the field down. Not in any malicious way, no. Reinhardt is just _devastating_ like that. ( That's a good word, _devastating_. ) Sometimes when Reinhardt stares at Reyes, brow set heavily and one remaining eyes trained on him, Reyes feels bare. Like Reinhardt _knows_ who he is, what he stands for, and can see right through him as if he were made of glass.

It’s this thick, cloying sensation that has him breathing more often and more deeply.

“What did you say?” Reyes asks, because he’s considerate and for all that he can bark on the battlefield, he knows how to play nice.

“I told him the truth.”

* * *

Torbjörn is last because Jack doesn’t understand him. There’s not much to understand about the man himself which is why it’s frustrating.

Jack is not a simple man which makes him simple. Ana is not simple either, but she knows how to make herself understood. Reinhardt is simple, which makes him not simple at all. Somehow, they can understand him fine despite that.

Torbjörn’s neither simple nor complex - he’s _both_. It’s a frightening moment when Reyes realizes this. It's enough for Jack to notice, mouth parted as if to pry, but then he notices Reyes' expression and he closes his mouth.

Torbjörn is a collection of many broken things and people. Of course it’s too similar. _Of course_.

When Jack asks him, _“How do you think we’ll die?”_ they’re all together.

Ana is seated with her sniper rifle spread out before her and she’s carefully cleaning each part of it. Her head is down and her lips are pursed.

Reinhardt is leaning against the wall, hand on his hammer and finger lax in contemplation.

Jack is by Reyes and Reyes is by Jack. Their hands are not quite touching, but Jack’s left wrist is flat against the floor and Reyes’ right hand hovers nearby.

Torbjörn takes one look at all of them before huffing and firing back, “How do _you_ think we’ll die?”

Reyes doesn’t smile now, but he does when Jack is asleep and the sounds of Torbjörn working fills the silent night sky.

* * *

Somewhere, Ana is dead because she kept her promise. Somewhere, Reinhardt wears a cleanly pressed suit as he is being fed lies by the people he loved. Somewhere, Torbjörn is stuck with the reality that people are using his own creations against him.

Gabriel Reyes doesn’t die.

Somewhere still, Jack survives.

**Author's Note:**

> just something i've been thinking about for a long time. i love the og squad ( and reyes ) a lot. this is my first fic on ao3 so i'm still trying to figure out what exactly i'm doing. enjoy.


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